Crisp, Samuel, -1783

Samuel Crisp was baptized on November 14, 1707, in England. His father, Samuel Crisp, a London merchant, was a grandson of the theologian Tobias Crisp; his mother was Florence, daughter of Charles Williams.

He was an English dramatist. Crisp was educated at Eton College. By the age of thirteen, he had lost both his parents and became a residuary legatee. He led the life of a dilettante and is not known to have followed a profession. He lived in Italy for a few years, studying art and music, returning in 1740. At the request of the Countess of Coventry, he wrote the play Virginia, a tragedy based on the story of Appius and Verginia. In February 1754, the play was produced at Drury Lane, where it ran for eleven nights. When a few weeks later Virginia appeared in print, the critics, particularly in the Monthly Review, condemned the plot, characters, and diction. Crisp was bitterly disappointed, sold his home in Hampton, and moved to Chessington Hall in Surrey, which he shared with his friend Christopher Hamilton. After Hamilton died in 1759, he remained there as a boarder of Hamilton's unmarried sister Sarah. Crisp was frequently visited by his sister, Mrs. Sophia Gast of Burford, Oxfordshire, by his old friend and protégé the musician and historian Charles Burney, and by Burney's family. Crisp came to know his daughter, Fanny. It was to “Daddy” Crisp that Fanny addressed her first journal letters, lively accounts of the musical evenings at the Burneys’ London house where the elite among European performers entertained informally for gatherings. She probably wrote much of her second novel, 'Cecilia' at Crisp's home, and they enjoyed a long correspondence, Crisp acting as her mentor.

He died unmarried on April 24, 1783, in Chessington, Surrey, England.